Mid of June. I cannot believe it’s been so long since I wrote the last article. I think that soon, in less than two months, Little Miss Foodie celebrates her first year. Oh, happy days! It’s been such a great year, full of emotions and new experiences for both of us. The beginning of a great adventure.

Now, that you’ve forgiven me for my absence, which is justified, by the way considering the circumstances I am going to talk about one of my favorite tarts. You can now find pears almost everywhere so you must give it a try and I promise you won’t be sorry about it. It’s such a delicate dessert, extremely flavored and quite good looking, I’d say.

I must confess that I’m in love with frangipane cream, hence with all the desserts that contain it. The origin of frangipane cream are not very clear as there are few stories about it. The fact is that this delicate cream used in France for the well known Galette des Rois gets a dessert to a higher level of elegance. This is what happens with my pear tart – a delicious tart that made our day lovelier and sweeter.

I can tell you that pear and frangipane are a perfect match. You must be careful though to choose the right type of pears. Williams will do as they are a bit softer than others but they do not have to be too ripe because it can go mushy. The sweetness of pears meets the delicate almond flavor in a great dessert, and I say great!

It can be served with a mascarpone cream or some ice cream but I preferred it just the way it was.

Normally I do not publish too many behind the scenes shots but I think this is worth it to testify how tempting this tart can be. While I was shooting the slice at a certain point I couldn’t resist so I started eating it. This is one of the great moments of shooting food photography.

Apart from an empty plate in this photo if you are interested in some technical detail I can tell you that the photos for this recipe where shot with natural light. As you can see in the picture above the set was prepared near a window and the cake was positioned with the light on the left. I also used a white piece of foamcore on the right to fill in the shadows ( it bounces the light back on the darker side of the cake). I shot the pictures from a higher angle instead of right at table height to catch more light. Pictures where shot with ISO 200 using a 50 mm f/1.4 and a 105 mm f/2.8. I played a bit with the shutter to obtain the bokeh you can see in some of the pictures. Of course the tripod and the remote control where a must and that’s kind of all.

I will stop talking about all these technical stuff and I will let you go buy all you need for this delicious tart hoping that it will make a greater day for most of you.